“Walking on Sol” by Nima Bahrehmand
Title:
- Walking on Sol
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Filmmaker, Video Artist, or Animator(s):
Symposium:
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Artist Statement:
In the central core of the ancient city of Kerman is a fortress belonging to the Persian empire that, over time, has worn out and turned into a giant dune. In Walking on Sol, I use digital tools to create an aesthetic form to investigate and interweave the possible impact of the fortress’s history and myth on the region and the world.
The current view of the fortress does not relate much to the glorious Persian empire. Now it is a pile of dust. By looking at the fortress’s current condition, the product of erosion and human disregard, this project asks: To what extent does the fortress’s history, and the myths and legends surrounding it, foreshadow contemporary human impact—development and devastation— on the future of the world?
In contrast to the belief of many young residents of the region, who consider the fortress a giant dune, the elders and great grandparents believe that it is the grave of a worm-like monster whose hatred has caused the city’s current situation of drought and scarcity. Through a digitalized speculative aesthetic—as an alternative narrative—Walking on Sol asks: what happens when disregarded beliefs and repressed regions are recalled and thought of in different ways? Can these forgotten remnants of the past be whisperings of the future? And by simulating an abstract 3D environment through digital software, the work asks: what aspects of the future can be imagined and constructed by technology? By juxtaposing the digital and physical structure of the region, Walking on Sol intertwines an aesthetic form for the future of the Past with the imagined Future.
